See ya in the pit.

Review of The Season by All Get Out October 28, 2011

Simply put, All Get Out’s The Season is a jaw-dropping explosion of surprisingly good music. On the surface, the band comes across as a mediocre pop-punk band that relies too heavily on guitar hooks. Perhaps this is because of my murderous hatred of bad pop punk. In my opinion pop punk has two sides, the horrible, horrible, whiny stuff and the brilliant song writing of early Fall Out Boy. The difference is that when you sit down to listen to All Get Out, the band’s true brilliance shows itself. Most songs are your fast-paced, punk-driven affairs but the tempo hides some truly heart-wrenching lyrics and melodies you will hum long after the music has stopped. They fail to fall into one genre, one sound. When you think you have pinpointed the sound, a song like “Girl, Gun” appears with its heavy riffs and vocal distortion. Even strings make an appearance! And even better, they’re spectacular and not gratuitous! The final two songs of the album are so beautifully written and performed; you’ll think it was coming out of the amps of a band on its 8th album as opposed to its first.

Lyrically, The Season bounces around from happy to heavily introspective. This range of emotions showcases lead singer Nathan Hussey’s ability to both write and perform not only a one-noted affair, but a deep and multifaceted collection of songs. The electric instruments backed by complex drum beats, acoustic guitars and piano (which is my Achilles’ heel musically, if you’ve got the black and whites you go up 10 points in my book) are pure bliss, and you just want to sit on the repeat button until your ears can’t take it anymore. Laugh at my over-the-top descriptions if you want, but you’ll surely be missing one of the best albums this year. What is so special is that the band may use the stereotypical methods of “let’s make this song more dramatic” with strings or harmonies, but they do in such an original and beautiful way; you can’t fault them for it. As I write this, faint horns augment a song called “The Season” (which is also the title song of the album) and I am dumbstruck by the near perfection of this debut album. In fact, I hate putting this band in the genre pop punk because of its transcendence of the current typical sound. Sadly, as with all albums, especially new ones, there are a few flaws. The first number of songs on the album has a slight identity problem, namely being that they don’t differentiate themselves from one another. While this is alleviated later, you don’t exactly fall in love with the album straightaway. This absence of a signature sound somewhat persists throughout the album, but it’s near impossible to bash this collection of songs.

For a debut effort, it’s superb. This has restored my faith in the direction that rock is going. If this is where it’s headed, buy me a ticket on the train to happiness. Readers, go out and buy this album. It’s that good and this band will only get better as time goes by. So, be that one guy or girl who is cool enough to turn people on to the next great band. I wish I could do it all myself, then I would be that guy. However, I leave it up to you, fair music-lovers, to spread the word on a spectacular start from a spectacular band.